MICHIGAN News

The Eastern Michigan University Wraparound Project started
servicing clients about a year ago, and as of today the project has 29
at-risk teen parents in the program.

The project assists parents 16-20 who are at-risk and dealing with
court involvement, substance abuse, mental health and homelessness.

Special education professor Laura Sanchez wrote the initial grant
to the Department of Justice three years ago, help the at-risk teenage
parents of Oakland and Washtenaw counties.

“Research done by EMU…[found] the most vulnerable group to be
targeted was teenage parents,” said Lauren Urteaga-Fuentes, Project
Coordinator for the EMU Wraparound Project.

Sanchez would leave before the Wraparound Project officially started
taking clients, but special education professors Dr. Derrick Fries and
Dr. Karen J. Carney stepped up to take her place and are now
co-directors of the Wraparound Project.

The Alan Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit agency, said only 64
percent of teenage mothers graduate from high school or earn a GED. This is in comparison to 94 percent of
non-pregnant female teenagers.

Studies done by Child Trends, a nonprofit research organization,
said nearly 80 percent of teen mothers eventually go on welfare, and 55
percent of all mothers on welfare were teenagers at the time their first
child was born.

The project uses mentors to address school completion goals for the
clients, as well as becoming a friend, adviser, career counselor and
role model.

“There has been a great response from the EMU
students that really care and want to get involved,” Fuentes said about
EMU students getting involved in the
community based project.

About three quarters of the mentors involved are EMU
students, most of whom are from the education department or social work
program.

“I value the importance of mentoring…helping someone out with their
situation,” said Azibo Stevens, an EMU
doctoral student in urban education and a mentor in the project.

“[The Wraparound Project] does a good job of pairing people
together, and helps us by offering financial support and reimbursement
for activities with our mentees.”

Fuentes said, “Homelessness is the biggest problem for teenage
parents, their relationship with their family suffers after pregnancy.”


The project looks to stabilize a client’s living situation and
relationships by addressing parenting and family functioning goals
throughout a client‘s wraparound tenure, while coordinating with other
community based services.

This has lead to a strong relationship among Wraparound mentors,
such as Stevens, and their clients.

“I have counted on this person to be a friend, and when the official
case comes to an end, I want to continue this friendship,” Stevens
said.

A client graduates from the program when he or she is no longer
cosidered an at-risk teen parent or the clients have turned 21, the age
limit of the program.

The success of the project hinges on the importance of the mentors
and EMU student involvement to create success
stories for the clients that avoids the mentee becoming another child
trends statistic.

“The mentee has enrolled back in school to get a high school
diploma, worked on their resume to get a full time job, and they have
taken steps in their relationship and parenting,” Stevens said. “It has
been rewarding to see that growth.”

SOUTHFIELD — There will be a free child ID Day event from 11 a.m.-3 p.m.
Saturday at Southfield Civic Center Parks and Recreation, 26000
Evergreen Road. The Southfield Police Department will photograph,
fingerprint and provide other valuable information that will be given to
parents and guardians.

Oakland County Commissioners Eric Coleman
and Janet Jackson will submit a resolution on Tuesday to commemorate
“Missing Children’s Day” in the county and encourage residents to take
time to talk to their children about safety to help them keep from
becoming one of the nearly 800,000 children that are reported missing
each year.

Those still searching for her killer plan to commemorate 5-year-old
Nevaeh Buchanan's life with a carnival-type event Saturday in Monroe,
nearly a year after her death.
The community group Justice for Nevaeh is
sponsoring Remembering Nevaeh -- One Year Later, at the Moose Lodge
near the Monroe apartment complex where the girl was kidnapped May
24, 2009."We didn't want to word it as a celebration; we didn't want
it to call it an anniversary, but since Nevaeh was so young
and innocent, we wanted to gear it toward the kids," the group's
co-chairwoman, Risa Thompson, said Tuesday. Thompson, 42, of Livonia is a
distant cousin of Nevaeh's father.From noon-9 p.m., bounce houses, carnival
games with prizes, food, live entertainment and exhibitions by local gymnastics and
karate students are to take place in the parking lot at 1320 N. Macomb
St., where volunteers gathered a year ago to mobilize searches.The event also is to
host presentations on child safety, abuse prevention, counseling and
creating a child safety contingency plan. The Rev. Dale Hayford of the
Community Crosswalk Church in Monroe is to open the event with a prayer.Two fishermen found
Nevaeh's body on June 4, buried in dirt and covered with quick-drying
concrete along the River Raisin. An autopsy showed the preschooler
suffocated after inhaling dirt. The Monroe County Sheriff's Office is
searching for her killer and more than $20,000 in reward money has been offered.
Anyone with information about her disappearance can contact the Sheriff's
Office Nevaeh Buchanan Task Force at 734-457-6713.

There's a new way to report abuse or neglect of children or adults in Michigan starting today.The
Michigan Department of Human Services was set top launch a new
statewide Central Intake program at 8 a.m., replacing a system in which
calls would go to individual DHS county offices.
In the new program, one toll-free number, 1-855-444-3911, is available
to everyone, including mandatory reporters such as teachers, physicians and police, according to a news release from DHS.

"The
number is answered quickly, 24 hours a day, seven days a week
(including holidays) by trained professionals at the new Central Intake
call center in Kent County, where a successful six-county pilot program
has been running since September 2011," the news release said.

"The new system provides many improvements over the previous one, especially with consistency and efficiency."
Calls will be evaluated and referred to counties for an investigation decision, the news release said.
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2012/03/new_michigan_dhs_child_abuse_r.html

Local judge removes 5-year-old from grandparents to live with mom and known child abuser

Posted: 02/26/2013
Last Updated: 14 hours and 31 minutes ago

(WXYZ) - A couple months before her 5th birthday, a little girl, who had been raised by her grandparents in Gibraltar, was ripped from their care without warning. A local judge handed the child over to her biological mother who she barely knows-- and who is married to a man with a history of child abuse.

7 Action News witnessed the dramatic moment when the little girl got word that she would have to say goodbye to her grandma and grandpa for good, and that she would be moving to Salt Lake City, Utah with the mother who she has spoken to only a handful of times. It all happened in the hallway of the Coleman A. Young Administration Building in Detroit where family courts are located.

Little five-year old Lia, whose last name we are not providing to protect her privacy, sat between her grandparents in the court hallway when she was told that her world was about to change forever. Grandma broke the news to Lia that she would be moving immediately out of state and her grandparents would not be going with her.

The sound of Lia crying shattered the hallway silence. Then she asked, “Will I ever come back?” and “Will you come to visit me?”

The road to this emotional day was long. When Lia’s parents divorced, her then 21-year old father was granted custody of Lia. When he wasn’t able to care for his daughter, his parents became the legal guardians—that is until a battle over child support lead to the biological mom coming to Michigan last year to retrieve her daughter.

At a hearing, Lia’s mom, Amber Haning, told Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Susan Hubbard that she, along with her new husband and their daughter, were a family. She said she was ready to support Lia in their Utah home.

“I would like to take the child with me. I have everything for her there .I have medical for her. Everything,” Amber Haning told the court.

But then, Amber’s new husband, 40-year old Ray Haning took the stand with shocking testimony. He had been convicted of child abuse, and his child from a previous marriage had been permanently removed from his custody for slapping the little girl.

“When the child was screaming…I was trying to get her to calm down,” Haning said. “I thought maybe tapping her face might get her attention. I did it a couple of times and it left a mark, it went away in 24 hours.”

He said since then he had anger management counseling and was taking drugs for depression, schizoid tendencies, and mild paranoia. For Lia’s grandparents, it was a stunning revelation that had not known until that hearing.

Troy Huffaker, Lia’s grandfather, told 7 Action News, “The whole risk of that fact that she’s living with someone whose been convicted of child abuse, that’s a whole separate issue.”

They thought the risks might be enough to convince Judge Susan Hubbard to leave Lia in her grandparents’ care. But Hubbard had a surprise for them.

Weeks after that hearing, court records show the Judge told the Huffakers she wanted to interview Lia before she decided the case. But just moments after she took the child in her chambers, the Judge handed their attorney an 11- page decision. The Huffaker’s attorney believes the judge had made up her mind long before Lia was in chambers, and that the interview was only a ruse to take the child away.

“I don’t believe there was any intent on the part of Judge Hubbard to reconvene an evidentiary hearing, nor to interview the child,” said the grandparents’ attorney Mike Pendracki. “But I think the order was deceitful in nature and inappropriate.”

But something else made the sudden, unexpected decision by the judge to immediately deliver Lia to her biological mother even more shocking.

Dr. KayVonne Cason is a Ph.D psychologist who evaluated Lia at the Huffakers’ request. Cason testified that the court should allow for a transition period of several months before Lia was permanently moved so far away from the only life and family she’s known since birth.

“There should be time for family reunification,” Dr. Cason explained to us as she did with the court.” Lia definitely needed some time to get used to the woman who was virtually a stranger to her, someone she called ‘that lady’, someone who actually frightened her.”

7 Action News spoke to another expert, who agrees with Dr. Cason; Wayne State University professor Angelique Day, who has a Master’s in Social work.

“Placement, even to a biological home can be traumatic if not done in a way that works for the child,” says Day, who believes what appears to be the judge’s harsh decision may have come from a lack of understanding what trauma can do to a child.

“I think part of that is because we have a judicial system that is not trauma informed or hasn’t been trained in understanding the ramifications of these decisions on a child’s development,” she says.

So why did Judge Hubbard ignore expert testimony recommending that, at the very least, Lia be given time to get used to her new home before moving her there permanently? And why did she also ignore the fact that

More: http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/local_news/investigations/local-judge-removes-5-year-old-from-grandparents-to-live-with-mom-and-known-child-abuser#sthash.EZYhpztd.CK89iAaY.dpuf

That mother will destroy this little girl's life because she doesn't want to pay child support.

In many of this type of case, the next thing we hear is about the child being beaten to death.

I pray for her. Even if they don't abuse her physically, they are already abusing her mentally and emotionally.

A "tap" on the face doesn't leave a mark. A person doesn't get convicted of child abuse without reason.